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Highlights 8 The Role and Promise of Physics Education Research January 2006 By Noah Finkelstein APS NEWS Volume 15, No.1 A Publication of The American Physical Society http://www.aps.org/apsnews Executive Board Passes Resolution What’s in a logo? on Office of Science Budget Hereisthenewlogothatthe American Physical Societywillbeginusing immediately,onstationery,businesscards, variousotherpublications ast fall, Congress passed H. greatly distressed by the damag- notes that: The budget adopted by andtheweb.Itdiffersfromtheoldlogobyvirtueoftheprominent R. 2419, which set the ing conference action on H.R. the conferees rolled back funding inclusionoftheword“physics.” LFY2006 budget for the 2419, which eliminated the small for most Office of Science pro- Thepurposeofthisadditionistomake Office of Science in the but critical increases for the grams to levels requested by the clear,to non-physicists,theessential Department of Energy. This Department of Energy’s scientific White House last February; And natureofthesocietyinawaythatthe budget impacted nuclear physics research programs that both hous- at that time, in response to queries, name“AmericanPhysicalSociety” particularly severely (see related es of Congress had previously DOE officials agreed that such doesnot. story on page 5). At its November approved. The Board notes that in budgetary levels would result in a MarvinCohen,whowasAPSPresidentin meeting the APS Executive Board the face of inflationary increases shortfall of $100 million in univer- Novemberwhenthelogowasapproved passed a resolution expressing its in wages and energy costs, H.R. sity grants, amounting to a ten bytheExecutiveBoard,says“Ilikethe distress and calling for a rearrange- 2419 will force the Department to percent reduction in the level of logo.Atleastnowwhenyouareinan ment of priorities in FY2007. make significant reductions in its scientific effort. elevatoratanAPSmeetingandsomeone The following is the text of the university programs and in oper- •Finally, the Executive Board looksatyourbadge,theywon’taskyouaboutsports.” resolution. ations of its national research notes that: The budget Congress •The Executive Board of the facilities. adopted will discourage young Heisoptimisticaboutthelogo’sutility.“Ithinkthatthenewlogo,ifusedwell – American Physical Society is •The Executive Board also Americans from pursuing careers perhapswithtaglines – willgetuspastmanyoftheidentityproblemswe’vehad. in the physical sciences at a time Butifthelogochangedoesn’twork,in2or3yearswemayconsider goingforward withafull namechange.” Theissueofanamechangeto“AmericanPhysics And the textbook is thi-i-is thick.... when industrial leaders are warn- Society”was exploredviaamembersurveylastsummer,butwasputonholdwhen ing that our nation is losing out in legalandfinancialproblemsprovedgreaterthananticipated. the global competition for intellec- (seeAPSNews,August/SeptemberandNovember,2005) tual capital; And the budget runs APS News staff counter to calls by industrial lead- ers for sharp increases in federal Hydrodynamics, Small-Scale Flows investments in physical science basic research and education to Highlight 2005 DFD Meeting address the alarming deficits in our high-tech balance of trade. New research on the hydrody- World Year of Physics. One goal Funding provided by H.R. 2419 namics of pectoral fins in fish and was to communicate the excite- leaves virtually every Office of the dolphin kicks of Olympic- ment of physics to the general Photo credit: Bernard Khoury public, thereby inspiring a new Ninety new physics and astronomy faculty attended a 3-day workshop Science program under consider- level swimmers were among the th at the American Center for Physics in College Park last November, to absorb able stress. For example, highlights of the 58 annual meet- generation of scientists. In honor new ideas in pedagogy from leading practitioners and researchers in Brookhaven National Laboratory ing of the APS Division of Fluid of the WYP, the meeting featured physics education. The workshop is run annually by the American in New York has already Dynamics (DFD), held November a special public lecture by Nobel Association of Physics Teachers, in partnership with the APS and the announced that it is making plans 20-22 in Chicago, Illinois. The laureate Leon Lederman on sci- American Astronomical Society, with funding provided by the National to lay off 100 members of its staff meeting was jointly hosted by the ence education’s “quiet crisis.” Science Foundation. Here Warren Hein, Associate Executive Officer of and suspend activities at the Illinois Institute of Technology, His lecture was followed by a AAPT (left), rivets workshop participants with a key bit of information. Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, Northwestern University, and the reception and an exhibit of the The workshop chair was Ken Krane of Oregon State University. which is just now reaching the University of Illinois, Urbana- 2005 Gallery of Fluid Motion. peak of its scientific productivity. Champaign. Hydrodynamics. The pectoral Dallas To Host 2006 APS April Meeting Similarly, Thomas Jefferson Last year marked the 100th fins of fish are designed for a great Laboratory in Virginia is making anniversary of Einstein’s “miracle degree of control over fluid forces: Approximately 1500 physicists and Hadronic Physics. Executive Board continued on page 5 year” and was designated the they are flexible and able to are expected to attend the 2006 In keeping with the more gener- change their shape, enhancing APS April Meeting, to be held April alist tone of the April meeting, nine their ability to maneuver in water. 22-25 in Dallas, Texas. The scien- invited plenary talks will highlight Michelson and Morley Get Their Due However, the kinetics do not lend tific program, which focuses on the technical program (see sidebar). themselves easily to the usual astrophysics, particle physics, APS April Meeting continued on page 7 analysis based on pitching or nuclear physics, and related fields, paddling kinematics, or lift/drag- will consist of three plenary ses- Plenary Talks at April Meeting based propulsive mechanisms. In order to glean new insights sions, approximately 75 invited ses- Voyager Data and the Termination Lock sions, more than 100 contributed Edward Stone, Caltech into the hydrodynamics of sessions, and poster sessions. This pectoral fins, researchers at Liquid Phase Quark-Gluon Plasma year the meeting will be held in Barbara Jacak, SUNY, Stony Brook Harvard University and at George conjunction with the annual Washington University used two- Recent Results from MiniBoone camera high-resolution digital Sherwood Fusion Theory Hira Tanaka, Princeton Conference, devoted to dissemi- Photo credit: Mike Sands video to measure 3-D fin confor- Neutrinos and Cosmology On November 14, Case Western Reserve University held a mation of fish during steady swim- nating the latest research results in Nicole Bell, Caltech controlled thermonuclear research. celebration of the World Year of Physics, as well as of the centen- ming and while maneuvering. APS units represented at the Computational Techniques and nial of their physics building. As part of the festivities, APS They also performed high-fideli- Plasma Turbulance presented a plaque commemorating CWRU as a historic physics site, meeting include the Divisions of William Dorland, University of Maryland ty numerical simulations of the Astrophysics, Nuclear Physics, in honor of the Michelson-Morley experiment that took place there hydrodynamics and thrust per- Cochlear Implants and the Particles and Fields, Physics of in 1887. On hand to present the plaque was then APS vice-President formance of the pectoral fin of a Physics of Hearing (now President-elect) Leo Kadanoff of the University of Chicago. Beams, Plasma Physics, and bluegill sunfish. The measure- Ian Shipsey, Purdue University In the photograph at left, CWRU physics department Chair Cyrus Computational Physics; the ments and simulations showed The Science of Nanotubes* Taylor holds the plaque, while CWRU trustee emerita Dorothy Hamel that the fin produces a large Forums on Education, Physics Alex Zettl, UC Berkeley Hovorka and Kadanoff look on. The photograph at right shows amount of thrust at all phases in and Society, International Affairs, Kadanoff making the official presentation. Results from LIGO the fin motion, and produces a History of Physics, and Graduate Gabriella Gonzalez, Louisiana Student Affairs; and the State University This event was the second such presentation to take place as distinct system of connected vor- tices. Topical Groups on Few-Body Physics Prospects and International part of the APS Historic Sites initiative. In July, a plaque was pre- Systems, Precision Measurement Aspects of ILC sented to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in honor of the sci- Similar numerical simulations and Fundamental Constants, Albrecht Wagner, DESY entific work of Benjamin Franklin (see APS News, October 2005). are being used to study the fluid Gravitation, Plasma Astrophysics, *to be confirmed DFD Meeting continued on page 5 2 January 2006 APS NEWS This Month in Physics History January 1938: Discovery of Superfluidity "Frequently, brains would win problem worse unless you invest hen helium-4 is Kronstadt, near Leningrad. He the day. You had to outthink your huge amounts in recycling this stuff. chilled to below about studied engineering at Petrograd opponent, so it always reinforced This would increase the amount of W2.2 K, it starts to Polytechnical Institute,